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The SPARTAN-III program was both the successor and supplement to the SPARTAN-II program. Created and engineered by Colonel James Ackerson of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the SPARTAN-III soldiers were to be the next generation of supersoldiers. Composed primarily of vengeful orphans from fallen colonies,[2] they would be cheaper to arm, train, and produce; being chosen from a wider pool of candidates, they would also be more numerous than their SPARTAN-II predecessors. They would rely on superior battle tactics, and teamwork rather than advanced technology and equipment to achieve their combat effectiveness.[3]

The SPARTAN-II program had been a dazzling success for the UNSC. Tales of Spartan super soldiers fighting off thousands of Covenant attacks had become the stuff of legend. Unfortunately, there were too few SPARTAN-IIs to turn the tide of the war. Even worse, the director for the program, Dr. Catherine Halsey, had postponed the training of new SPARTAN-IIs for years due to the extremely specific genetic requirements for the children to be selected.

The SPARTAN-II program also had several problems and deficiencies which overshadowed its success to ONI. Firstly, the high mortality rate of the children during augmentation was counter-productive to the purpose, drive, and ambition of the program. Next, funding the Spartan program, including their training and Mjolnir Armor, cost as much as a Battle Group, at least according to Rear AdmiralNed Rich.[4] Third, there were far too few of them for them to turn the tide of the war. Finally, the SPARTAN-II program had gone public to improve morale in 2547. Even though it was a huge morale boost to the UNSC, it was a problem for most of the Office of Naval Intelligence. ONI operated in secrecy, and anything that shone light on their operations was seen as detrimental to their efforts.

The SPARTAN-IIIs were designed to be cheaper and expendable. They would be trained in companies of 300 to 330 at a time, with a training regime tougher than that of the previous Spartan Program.[5] They were sent on suicide missions that the UNSC could not accomplish with a conventional invasion force, elite Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, or even SPARTAN-IIs.[6] Though the casualty rates of the SPARTAN-IIIs stood at 100 percent on some missions, to ONI, all the operations were strategic successes. They were trading lives for time against the larger and technologically superior Covenant Empire. ONI hoped that in time, enough Spartans would survive to train more and more future Spartans, swelling the ranks of available super soldiers from only thirty SPARTAN-IIs in 2531 to a hundred thousand SPARTAN-IIIs within ten to twenty years.[3]

On December 27, 2531, the first group of Spartan-IIIs, known as Alpha Company, were sent to Onyx to be trained at Camp Currahee. They were led by Kurt-051 a SPARTAN-II operating under the pseudonym "Ambrose." Of the 497 candidates who were conscripted, only 300 became Spartans. This class of Spartans all survived the augmentations and was activated in November of 2536. Their record was at first exemplary, as they saw action at the Insurrection ofMamore, the Battle of New Constantinople, and at the Bonanza Asteroid Belt. Nine months after they were activated, they were massacred in Operation: PROMETHEUS. All of the three-hundred Spartans deployed on the mission were supposedly killed. The only fire team mentioned for Alpha Company is Team Wolf Pack.[12]

An unknown number of Alpha Company's members, deemed to match the criteria used in selecting the SPARTAN-II candidates, were hand-picked by Mendez and Kurt before Operation: PROMETHEUS and extracted from the company. These Spartans were assigned to other units, and given equipment on par with the Spartan-IIs, including the Mjolnir Armor, to make them equally efficient on the battlefield. By 2552, four of these Spartans served with Noble Team; Carter-A259, Jun-A266, Emile-A239 and Thom-A293.[13]

Beta Company was approved right after Operation: PROMETHEUS in 2537. 418 candidates were conscripted in 2539, but only 300 became Spartans. Kurt-051 was disheartened at the loss of his first Spartans, and trained this group in unit cohesiveness along with a tougher training program. Though they were even better trained than the previous Spartans, they were similarly massacred in Operation: TORPEDO in 2545. From the entire company, only two participants survived the battle.[14]

As with Alpha Company, several members of Beta Company deemed too valuable to be wasted on suicide missions were pulled out of the unit before Operation: TORPEDO. Some of them were assigned to "non-combat roles" as a cover, much to Ackerson's dismay, as he wanted to have all Spartans in the field. Like the personnel extracted from Alpha Company, they were issued with special equipment such as the MJOLNIR. These included SPARTAN-B312 and Catherine-B320, both of which later served with Noble Team.[13]

Gamma Company was trained with the help of the only two Spartan-IIIs from Beta Company who survived Operation: TORPEDO: Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091. Lieutenant Commander Ambrose regarded Gamma Company as "the finest Spartans ever."[15] 330 candidates were selected, on average only six years old, and at the request of Kurt, all 330 were approved. Every one of them survived the augmentation procedures.[16] Gamma Company received deployment orders only a few weeks after the Fall of Reach, and most left Onyx before the Battle of Onyx.[17] Only fifteen SPARTAN-IIIs remained on Onyx as they competed for top honors. Following the Battle of Onyx, seven had been killed in action. Teams Gladius and Katana were not present in the early stages of the battle, leaving only Team Saber. Team Saber was the only SPARTAN-III unit to fight alongside the SPARTAN-II unit Blue Team. With the help of their older, more experienced counterparts, they successfully fought off a Covenant attack along with destroying a Sentinelmanufacturing facility. Ultimately, the surviving SPARTAN-IIIs escaped to the Shield World at the core of Onyx.[18]

Delta Company was proposed, and Camp Currahee was being prepared for their arrival when the Battle of Onyx began on October 31, 2552. With the death of Kurt-051 and the disappearances of SCPOFranklin Mendez and Dr. Catherine Halsey, as well as the immediate concerns of the Battle of Earth and the disintegration of Onyx, it is highly unlikely that Delta Company will ever be trained.[19][20]

Only SPARTAN-IIIs who have survived two or more specially assigned training missions can join the "Headhunters." These two-man teams of SPARTAN-IIIs go on missions far behind enemy lines and are typically expected to die in combat. The Headhunters' existence is secret even to their peers. Once selected, candidates for the program are separated from their fellow SPARTANs and are sent to specialist training camps on the far side of Onyx.[21] The Headhunters are comprehensively evaluated in order to ensure an effective bond between the members of each team. A contingent of six two-man teams, as well as five additional Headhunters, is maintained at all times to ensure the program's numbers remain constant should one or both members of a team be lost.[22] The Headhunters' SPI armor is more advanced than the suits issued to most SPARTAN-IIIs, as it includes energy shielding, motion sensors, and VISR technology, and can also support a prototype active camouflage module.[23]

The operational history of the SPARTAN-III program has been marked by success and tragedy. Many of the operations undertaken by the soldiers were suicide missions, but were listed as successes by the UNSC.

Semi-Powered Infiltration armor, colloquially called "SPI Armor," is a powered armor system used by the SPARTAN-IIIs. Though far more advanced and far more powerful than the ODST combat suit, it is less advanced and less powerful than the Mjolnir Armor used by the SPARTAN-IIs. Its main benefit was that it is drastically cheaper to produce than the Mjolnir Armor.

This armor is designed with an emphasis on stealth rather than raw power. It features photo-reactive panels that mimic the surrounding textures which were developed by UNSC scientists. It has been described as "part legionnaire mail, part tactical body armor, and part chameleon." It lacks the energy shielding of the Mark V and VI Mjolnir Armor designs, and a single "splash" from an enemy plasma weapon melts the suit's photo-reactive panels, rendering its camouflage capabilities useless.

Several Spartan-IIIs extracted from their main companies were issued with the Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor to improve their combat prowess. These included the SPARTAN-IIIs of Noble Team, who wore specialized permutations of the most recent Mark V model in 2552. In addition, some of them utilized a variant that was specifically developed for SPECWAR/Group Three; the Mark V[B].

The SPARTAN-IIIs underwent enhancement procedures similar to those of the SPARTAN-IIs, but with higher success rates due to advancements in technology. The rate of survival went up from 44% for the SPARTAN-IIs to 100% for the SPARTAN-IIIs.[26]

The naming convention of the SPARTAN-III companies follows the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, etc.). Each individual SPARTAN-III's identifier becomes A, B, or G (letter of respective company), followed by a three-digit number between 001 and 497 (Alpha Company), 418 (Beta Company), or 330 (Gamma Company), such as Ash-G099 and Catherine-B320 . This numbering system is very much like that of the SPARTAN-IIs.

For some reason, Ash-G099 was referred to as a private. This may suggest that the SPARTAN-IIIs were actually Marine-esque personnel. Evidence of this includes the use of Long Range Stealth Orbital Insertion Pods, a more sophisticated counterpart to the SOEIVs used by the ODSTs, and their only known combat experience being ground operations. However, the reference to Ash being a private may simply be a mistake, since Tom-B292, Lucy-B091, and the members of Noble Team are given Navy ranks.

The number of 300 SPARTAN-IIIs in both Alpha and Beta companies, who were both massacred but completed their missions and took on a Covenant force numbering in the high thousands is a reference to the last stand of the 300 Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae.

During Dr. Halsey's first appearance in Halo: Reach, she seems to show more hostility to the SPARTAN-IIIs (threatening to throw Kat in the brig and having a dispute with Carter) and then having a complete different personality towards Jorge who is a SPARTAN-II. This could be because the SPARTAN-IIIs are not her "creation" and she was "the matriarch of the SPARTAN-IIs." It could also be numerous other factors including that Col. James Ackerson had started the SPARTAN-III program to her own intellectuality as one of the UNSC's brightest.